Soni Sori, Aam Aadmi Party leader in Chhattisgarh and tribal rights' activist was attacked by two unknown men late on 20 February. The incident took place near Jawanga village under Geedam police station at around 10.40​ ​pm, reports said.

According to The Hindu, Sori had been "anticipating a risk to her life" in Bastar because she is the face of the tribals' democratic protest. Recently, a group of legal aid lawyers, a freelance journalist were evicted from their residences on the orders of police chief, SRP Kalluri.​ The tribal rights' activist was in Raipur on 16 February to lodge a police complaint against Kalluri. However, it was not registered, according to The Hindu report.

Soni Sori. File photo. IBNLive

The Times of India, ​quoted Sori as saying that "some acid-like black substance" was rubbed on her face by two bikers who had accosted her on her way back home in Geedam. ​Dantewada police confirmed that there were in fact, three unidentified men on a motorcycle who chased Sori, reports Hindustan Times. Police officials said the liqui​d ​— chemicals diluted with grease had not disfigured her, but had put her in pain. She is currently under observation at Jagdalpur hospital.

​40-year-old Sori born and raised in Dantewada had earlier survived arrests and alleged brutality while in custody a few years ago. According to DNA, the adivasi teacher was arrested in Delhi on 4 October 2011 and was brought to Dantewada police station on 8 October on the charges that she was an intermediary between the Essar group and Maoists. She was allegedly raped and tortured — stones were said to have been inserted into her vagina and rectum. She had written a letter to the Supreme Court the following year asking, "Will giving me electric shocks, stripping me naked, shoving stones inside me solve the Naxal problem?"